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Greek Traditional Lagana Bread For Clean Monday

Today is Clean Monday in Greece and we previously posted some traditional dishes. In addition to the dishes, it is traditional to eat a special type of bread called Lagana, which is flat and hasn't risen as much as normal bread. Usually people buy it from the bakers on Clean Monday, but you can also prepare it yourself. The photos show the Lagana we made this morning, fresh out of the oven!

Ingredients

1 kg all-purpose flour

300g strong flour

50g fresh yeast

8 tablespoons sesame seeds

1 tablespoon salt

1 level tablespoon sugar

200ml tepid waterTepid water as required, to make dough

Preparation

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in 200 ml tepid water.

Sift the all-purpose and strong flour together into a mixing bowl so that they are mixed together.

Sprinkle the salt over the flour.

Create a dip in the centre of the flour gradually add the solution with yeast and sugar.

Use a wooden spoon to lightly cover the solution in the centre with flour.

Cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for 15 minutes, to let the yeast solution rise.

After this time you should see some bubbles in the centre, indicating that the yeast has been activated.

Add enough tepid water to make a pliable dough, not too sticky, similar to that for normal bread.

Transfer the dough to a working surface and knead very well for about 15 minutes.

Put back in the mixing bowl and let it rest for no more than 15 minutes in a warm place, because we don’t want the dough to rise as bread does.

4 comments:

So strange! Yesterday for Valentine's Day hubby pulled out the stops and made the one dish that he's excellent at... an Italian dish (he's Irish, but can give an Italian a run for his or her money LOL!). However, your recipe for Lagana Bread (and the picture itself) makes me hungry again! You wouldn't happen to know how many calories are in a serving would you?? I'm counting calories and it's working like a charm, but that sure looks yummy!

@Poetic Shutterbug - no, it's not really like pitta bread, it's basically a 'flat' bread, because it hasn't been allowed to rise as much as normal. It's only produced and eaten 1 day every year in Greece - Clean Monday. By the way, it's really delicious with Gigantes (Butterbeans Plaki)!@Diane - I'm afraid we're not at all calorie counters! I'll see if I can get the information, but to be honest we never think about calories, so perhaps we're not the best people to ask! I'll try and check it out anyway.

Welcome to our blog! Here you can learn how to prepare delicious, traditional Greek dishes from recipes used in the home by local mothers and grandmothers! A lot of them are well-known and others perhaps not so well-known outside Greece. These are all recipes prepared by my wife Maria - she loves cooking and I love eating, so we make a great team!

We live on the island of Corfu in Greece and Maria comes from a family of chefs. Her recipes combine know-how with the simplicity of local, traditional Greek cooking.

These recipes are all for 4- 6 servings (depending on your appetite!) but if anything is left over it can easily be saved for the next day, which is what we do.

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